Gendered careers and human resource practices

Gendered careers and human resource practices

The case of humanitarian organizations

(2007/2008) (EEVA)

Research problem

In times of disaster, humanitarian organizations are important providers of relief and rehabilitation aid. For example after the Tsunami disaster of December 2004 many humanitarian organizations entered the affected areas to provide aid to the victims. Evaluation reports of these projects show however, that the performance of some of them is unsatisfactory: many recipients have not been reached and many of the humanitarian interventions launched are of questionable quality. On the one hand these results can be ascribed to the complex circumstances these organizations work in, but on the other hand evaluation reports point to the management of humanitarian organizations as a potential explanation for the low quality of humanitarian aid projects and lack of efficiency and distribution of resources.

The relationships between the nature of the workforce (including career patterns), the human resources practices and the performance of these humanitarian organizations are therefore the major focus of this research. Within these relationships special attention will be paid to gendered career paths. Examples of relevant research questions are:

- What is the duration of employee contracts?

- Who is more vulnerable to early exit and what are the causes?

- What are the consequences of employee turnover on the quality of humanitarian aid?

- What is the impact of human resource practices on career paths of employees?

Objectives

The Executive Board of the University of Groningen and the Groningen Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences have granted an EEVA ( Extra Emancipatie/Vrouwenstudies Activiteiten) grant to sociologists Rafael Wittek, Melinda Mills and Liesbet Heyse for investigating the relationships mentioned above. The EEVA grant is aimed to promote the study of gender issues.

Central aims of the research are:

- To study the gendered career paths of professionals both within and outside humanitarian aid organizations.

- To study the impact of human resource practices on the composition and career paths of the workforce.

- To provide explanations for ‘gendered’ career patterns.

- To provide evidence based policy recommendations.

How to reach these objectives?

A web-based survey among ‘Network Of Humanitarian Action’ (NOHA) alumni will be conducted. NOHA is a pan-European educational program for humanitarian workers in which the University of Groningen participates. The network offers the potential to reach a large variety of respondents, both working within and outside the humanitarian aid sector. The data collected by this web-based survey will give more insights in the careers of the respondents and their perceptions regarding the human resource practices of the organizations they (used to) work for. Additionally a case study within a humanitarian aid organization will be conducted.

Research team members

Contact person: Liesbet Heyse

Subprojects (PhD project)

By Valeska Korff: Victims of Circumstance: Human Resource Practices, Career Paths and Failure to Achieve Organizational Goals in Humanitarian Organizations (RuG/ ICS)